1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an extrusion device, and a method, for the production of a food product and it also relates to a novel food product as such. More particularly the invention concerns itself with the production by extrustion of a food product comprising a covering of a first food material such as dough and a filling of a second food material such as meat.
The invention lends itself to the fabrication of various food products of this kind but addresses itself more specifically to the automatic production of combination dough and meat products known as won tons. Typically won tons are made manually by wrapping a usually rectangular-shaped sheet of dough, consisting of flour and egg for example, around a filling of ground meat and the "patties" thus made are cooked or fried for eventual consumption. With the extrusion device and process according to the invention it is possible to extrude won tons or similar food products, in at least partially enclosed form together with the meat filling therein in a remarkably simple, rapid and inexpensive way. The result of this process--which is preferably supplemented by pre-cooking whereby the meat within the cover of dough is caused to jell or "set up"-- is a food product of unique and useful structure, quite apart from its attractive appearance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Extrusion devices for the production of food products, such as ravioli, made of a covering of a moldable food material and a meat filling therein are known per se. In producing these foods the meat filler is extruded through an inner nozzle and the moldable material is simultaneously extruded through an outer, surrounding nozzle. In a typical machine of this type the extrusion of the filler material through the inner nozzle is intermittently stopped and, in synchronism therewith, the ribbon of moldable material extruded through the outer nozzle is cut, for example, by a rotating wheel with circumferentially spaced blades therein, between the intermediate extrusions of the filler material through the inner nozzle. The food article produced by this process thus is in the form of a rectangular cover of moldable material, encasing a likewise substantially rectangular meat filler therein. Machines for carrying out this fabrication process are costly in manufacture and complex in operation.